Liquidmetal produced only one type of iron back in the day—the cavity-back iron. Consequently, it was geared toward amateurs—pros love blades because they allow them to control the shape of the ball flight much better. This marketing mistake on Liquidmetal’s part, and the fact that these irons were uber expensive to purchase, was the downfall of the irons. The better amateurs won’t buy what a pro isn’t playing, and the average amateur won’t spend the money. Its demise was inevitable! I hit my Liquidmetal irons about a club and a half longer than my Nike forged combo blades. And these irons helped me to win my match during a base intramural golf championship on Beale Air Force Base. I will be hitting the Nikes Pro Combo forged irons in the morning because I can shape shots better.
As far as the woods go, a number of professional golfers, including Paul Azinger, were using the Liquidmetal driver on tour. I specifically recall during the Mercedes Open in Hawaii one year (It’s the first tournament at the beginning of each golf season, and only those pros who won a match the previous season are invited to play), Paul Azinger was playing a Liquidmetal driver, and wearing a Liquidmetal ball cap. I distinctly recall the commentator say, “Paul Azinger is hitting the ball substantially as long as Tiger.” That got my attention! Unfortunately, the Royal and Ancient began enforcing the COR (coefficient of restitution) limit of 80 percent on drivers shortly thereafter. And because the face of Liquidmetal drivers returned energy to the golf ball well in excess of the R&A’s limit, the drivers were then deemed illegal. Plus, it was reported that the face plates of a number of Liquidmetal drivers detached from the head shell. I never experienced that issue with any of my five Liquidmetal drivers, but my younger brother cracked the faces of two Liquidmetal drivers. Doesn’t appear they were ready for market. I will be using my Professor Johnson 9-degree Liquidmetal driver on a course tomorrow morning (I liked the original driver better). Because it’s not tournament play, who cares?
Liquidmetal needs to produce a set of pro-level performance blades if it hopes to succeed in the golf retail market. Coupled with that, irons for advanced amateurs. Without these two markets, Liquidmetal will again fail. But in addition to the material composition of the head, there are a number of other factors that come into play, i.e., the structural design of the head and the shaft that gets matched to the head.
As far as the driver is concerned, Liquidmetal needs to develop an internal governor that prevents the driver head from exceeding the COR limit—that shouldn’t be too difficult. But the second factor would be forgiveness. For example, many drivers currently on the market launch a well-struck golf ball a very long way; however, miss the sweet spot and the distance can drop off dramatically. Develop a driver head that delivers exceptional distance AND doesn’t penalize so much on off-center shots and the pros will eat it up—that is a winning combination that eludes most other drivers on the market. Same goes for the irons.
Anyway, that’s my little schpiel. Hope they do well, so we can do well. GLTA!
